Hong Kong's Struggle for Democracy

The risk-averse leadership in Beijing looked at the option of having a genuine democracy in their sovereign territory, looked at the Occupy Central Movement, looked at messy democratic transitions happening in the rest of the world, and balked. In doing so, Beijing passed up a moment rich in symbolic promise and importance. Far from being an incubator for future reforms that might be tried on the mainland, Hong Kong is becoming a frozen mausoleum.